How to raise my Step 1 NBME scores

[ab84fan]

Hey everybody,

I need some advice here. I'm a U.S. Allopathic student and am scheduled to take Step 1 a week from now. Here's my situation after 5 weeks of dedicated prep and months before of re-reading First Aid:

UWorld - 61%

NBME 15 - 180

NBME 17 - 205 (4 weeks out from exam)

NBME 16 - 213 (3 weeks out from exam)

NBME 18 - 200 (2 weeks out from exam)

NBME 19 - 200 (1 week out from exam)

I feel like I've done everything to study, but my scores on 18 and 19 have been very disappointing. My questions are:

a) Should I reschedule and if so, how many more weeks should I study? Getting 200s this close to the exam feels too close to call. My academic advisor was wishy washy about what to do. We have a class in June but we are still allowed to take Step 1 during this period because rotations don't start until July.

b) What should I do during this time?

• Should I reset all of UWorld or just re-do incorrect questions?
  
  
• I started using an Anki deck with all of First Aid. I'm going to stick with it.
  
  
• What else?

If it bears any relevance, I'm a "3rd quartile" student. I score anywhere form the upper 70s to upper 80s on class exams, which somehow always ends up being below the mean but not in danger of failing.

Thank you

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[trs88]

Sorry I don't have any real advice for you since I'm pretty much in the same boat. But a few questions and suggestions to help get the ball rolling.

What do you think is bringing your scores down? Lack of knowledge (having no clue what the answer would be), getting the answers down to 50/50 then always picking the wrong one, not able to memorize specific details, anxiety?
For me, my issue right now is lack of knowledge. To help fix it, I'm watching Boards and Beyond videos, Pathoma and then First Aid and uworld. I know I'm bad in cardio so I plan to read the BRS for it.

What other resources have you used to try and help you learn the information?

This is just me, but I think you should check with your school and see what is the last day that you can take step and still start rotations on time. I had an early exam date and after I rescheduled it to July, I felt a ton of stress disappear and I was able to start learning the material again instead of just trying to rush through uworld.

 

[W19]

You should reschedule IMO and use another month to hammer Uworld again and other minutiae.. 200 is too close to the minimum passing score. My school usually tells students don't take the test if they are not scoring 210+...

If you are ok with FM/IM/Peds, you might try your luck.

 

[operaman]

I would delay. Period.

The scaled scores have quite a bit of error in them. The difference between a 200 and a 188 is not even statistically significant. Just not worth the risk.

As for what to do going forward, I would advocate doing something (anything) different than what you've been doing for the last 5 weeks. I would talk with your school and see just how much time you can get for an extension without it hosing you too bad otherwise. You're awfully close but made zero progress despite a long period of study already. If it comes to it, a year of "research" looks a LOT better on your residency apps than a step failure.

I think the anki is a decent idea but anki (and any spaced rep program) is designed for memorizing large amounts of info over a LONG period of time (months to years). You might actually benefit from some sort of dedicated prep course to help you with your study.

 

[Caltechstud]

I would delay. Period.

The scaled scores have quite a bit of error in them. The difference between a 200 and a 188 is not even statistically significant. Just not worth the risk.

As for what to do going forward, I would advocate doing something (anything) different than what you've been doing for the last 5 weeks. I would talk with your school and see just how much time you can get for an extension without it hosing you too bad otherwise. You're awfully close but made zero progress despite a long period of study already. If it comes to it, a year of "research" looks a LOT better on your residency apps than a step failure.

I think the anki is a decent idea but anki (and any spaced rep program) is designed for memorizing large amounts of info over a LONG period of time (months to years). You might actually benefit from some sort of dedicated prep course to help you with your study.

Hey everybody,

I need some advice here. I'm a U.S. Allopathic student and am scheduled to take Step 1 a week from now. Here's my situation after 5 weeks of dedicated prep and months before of re-reading First Aid:

UWorld - 61%

NBME 15 - 180

NBME 17 - 205 (4 weeks out from exam)

NBME 16 - 213 (3 weeks out from exam)

NBME 18 - 200 (2 weeks out from exam)

NBME 19 - 200 (1 week out from exam)

I feel like I've done everything to study, but my scores on 18 and 19 have been very disappointing. My questions are:

a) Should I reschedule and if so, how many more weeks should I study? Getting 200s this close to the exam feels too close to call. My academic advisor was wishy washy about what to do. We have a class in June but we are still allowed to take Step 1 during this period because rotations don't start until July.

b) What should I do during this time?

• Should I reset all of UWorld or just re-do incorrect questions?
  
  
• I started using an Anki deck with all of First Aid. I'm going to stick with it.
  
  
• What else?

If it bears any relevance, I'm a "3rd quartile" student. I score anywhere form the upper 70s to upper 80s on class exams, which somehow always ends up being below the mean but not in danger of failing.

Thank you

The difference between 200 and failure is just a matter of 5 or so questions. The standard error of measurement of Step 1 is like 8 points (10 questions). If you go take tests now, you are basically rolling the dice with a 50% chance of failure. Delay.

 

[W19]

The SEM when I took the test last year was 5... Maybe is it different now.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

The fact that your scores have shown stagnation over 4 weeks clearly shows there's clearly something wrong with the way you are currently studying. You're going to need to dig deep and figure out what the weakness is. Is it fund of knowledge? Is it test-taking ability? Anxiety? Endurance for long tests?

Is that 61% a first-pass score? If so, usually your NBME score should be higher (around 220-230s, if so). Figuring out the reason for that discrepancy may be the first step.

Like everyone else said, definitely delay. You're at a significant risk of failing at this stage.

 

[xClashx]

Delay step.

Resources that are more than enough: Pathoma, First aid, Sketchy Micro, U World

Uworld is very detail oriented. It helps you learn concepts but the questions you get on NBMEs are VERY simple compared to uworld. The problem I had was that I would always over think it, b/c I treated as an UWorld Question. I went from 228 to 240 in a week after I stopped doing Uworld questions because I realized test taking was not the problem, but rather I was missing minor details, so I read FA for what I was weak on.

2 Things you NEED to be able to do to get a good step score:
-Recognize the vocabulary (they will code the correct answer: transmural inflammation with fibrinoid necrosis --> Polyarthritis Nodosa) Sometimes, they will use vocab that you have never read in any book. That is okay, as long as you can recognize majority, you should be able to eliminate the answers. (BTW, don't jump gun, always eliminate the wrong answers before choosing the right one)

-Understanding what the question is asking you. You have to start thinking like a test writer. NBME tests very simple concepts in complex situations. Those questions that have arrows going up, down, side ways. I used to get really tripped up by them, until I realized that by looking at just one column, you can eliminate half of the answers.

Best of luck!

 

[trs88]

2 Things you NEED to be able to do to get a good step score:
-Recognize the vocabulary (they will code the correct answer: transmural inflammation with fibrinoid necrosis --> Polyarthritis Nodosa) Sometimes, they will use vocab that you have never read in any book. That is okay, as long as you can recognize majority, you should be able to eliminate the answers. (BTW, don't jump gun, always eliminate the wrong answers before choosing the right one)

Sorry to hi-jack the thread, but this is literally one of my biggest problems is recognizing the vocab. Like, half of my notes are versions of "XY is described as WW". Any suggestions on how to improve?

 

[muhali3]

What I did was review every question I got wrong on the NBME -> Ask myself "Why did I get this wrong and how can I not get this type of question wrong in the future?" for each question -> Studied that entire subject in First Aid for each question (so if I got a coagulation question wrong, I would study everything about coagulation) -> Take another NBME after a week -> Repeat. If the same topic areas keep showing up then you're probably not doing it right. IMO, UWorld was only useful once I started getting up to 240.

 

[xClashx]

Sorry to hi-jack the thread, but this is literally one of my biggest problems is recognizing the vocab. Like, half of my notes are versions of "XY is described as WW". Any suggestions on how to improve?

I honestly started to understand the vocab once I started to do Q banks. During the year I did Rx and in Jan, I started Uworld. Every question, regardless of if I get it right or wrong, I would read the other answers and associate the description with what it really means. It took time, I think I have done over 4k questions but it was worth it in the end. However, what I realized though was that literally almost every NBME question I have encountered (aside from a few that you have to logic out), the descriptions for them are in either FA or Pathoma. It is actually unbelievable how much info is in those 2 resources if you look in the right places. I would go over the Rapid Review section in FA. They do a good job in associating buzz words / classical symptoms with diseases.

 

[trs88]

I honestly started to understand the vocab once I started to do Q banks. During the year I did Rx and in Jan, I started Uworld. Every question, regardless of if I get it right or wrong, I would read the other answers and associate the description with what it really means. It took time, I think I have done over 4k questions but it was worth it in the end. However, what I realized though was that literally almost every NBME question I have encountered (aside from a few that you have to logic out), the descriptions for them are in either FA or Pathoma. It is actually unbelievable how much info is in those 2 resources if you look in the right places. I would go over the Rapid Review section in FA. They do a good job in associating buzz words / classical symptoms with diseases.

Perfect, thanks for the tip. Much appreciated 😀